Yahoo! Experiments in Reality Mining with Bluetooth MyBlogLog
Yahoo! owned MyBlogLog is stepping into dangerous waters with a new experiment in mobile presence tracking through Bluetooth.
Demonstrated at the eTech conference today, m.mybloglog.com says it allows users to: "Bind your Bluetooth address to your MyBlogLog account and discover others nearby and [sic] find out if you have any shared interests. Meetspace keeps track of time spent with others so you have a running log of people to meet and things to talk about."
The new Mobile MyBloglog uses a java applet to tie your Bluetooth device to your MyBlogLog account, then polls for new activity every two minutes. In some way it's not that different from Google's Dodgeball or other mobile presence trackers. MyBlogLog is very tied into your online behavior, though, most recently relaunching with an emphasis on online lifestreaming. This new feature will let you, and Microhoo, view the recent online activities of the (participating) people you've been near lately.
Reality Mining
"Reality mining" is a phrase coined by MIT researcher Sandy Pentland, whose work we wrote about in December. Pentland is working on processing more than 350,000 hours of data collected from peoples' cell phones. Pentland's Nokia funded work is studying proximity, location and activity data using information including interactions recorded between Bluetooth devices.
Previous coverage of what Pentland is up to is worth a read on its own. Obviously he's not the only one working on passive collection of presence and activity data through the interaction of mobile devices.
The Privacy Lab That is MyBlogLog
MyBlogLog is a great laboratory for Yahoo! to experiment with behavioral tracking and personal information among early adopter crowds. There's a lot of fascinating work being done there. It sometimes borders on creepy, though, and this is one of those times.
If you've signed up for a MyBlogLog account, you've probably experienced the ambivalent feelings that can arise from on one hand being interested to see the faces of other people who read your blog or the blogs you like, but on the other hand feeling a little uneasy with your own blog reading being very public. The MyBlogLog cookie is very persistent, too. Of course this is opt-in, but how far down the rabbit hole are we going to go before that's no longer sufficient justification for new levels of tracking?
Data portability and lifestreaming online have huge potential, but once experiments like this start creeping into reality mining territory there are some gigantic privacy questions that come up. I don't know why MyBlogLog thinks it can get away with introducing this kind of service when it knows it has a shaky public image on privacy.
My first thought upon seeing this was: the internet brain implant creeps closer every day. Maybe I'm over reacting, but how often do you see people who never take their Bluetooth headsets off? This kind of tracking needs to stay as far away from the inside of my head as possible.
I have said several times that Yahoo! is pushing the envelope on data portability with MyBlogLog while the standards community sits too far towards the sidelines having a different discussion. The web, and data portability itself, need a big discussion of the privacy half of the data portability discussion. To keep track of these important discussions here's an RSS feed you can subscribe to that contains DataPortability.org discussions that contain the word "privacy" and Ask.com blogsearch results for the query: privacy AND "data portability" OR authorization. Enjoy. Here's a preview of the last few things that have come through this feed.
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This is so creepy. I can't stand how invasive Yahoo and all of its properties have become. I gave you a discover on stumble and went back in to my Profy article from earlier this week and linked here. I agree with your analysis wholeheartedly.
I, for one, would gladly give Yahoo! the right to track my location in exchange for an internet brain implant. I can assure you, they would never track me walking into a shady adult store once I've got the internet in my head! In all seriousness, as long as it's opt-in, I don't see the problem nor do I see how it can tarnish their reputation on privacy or any other front. If you want to find nearby users, you opt-in. If you don't want anyone around you to get notified you're there, you don't sign up.
This service is exactly what a german startup (www.aka-aki.com) launched last year. They offers a java midlet which installed on your mobile phone searches via bluetooth for other aka-aki enabled phones.
With the reach of Mybloglog and Yahoo in the background this sounds much more powerful.
"Meetspace", or is it "Meatspace"? ;)
I have no problem with the service, it is opt-in.
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for the post. As others have mentioned, this is an opt-in experience that we threw together as an social experiment for the crowd at the Graphing Social Patterns, ETech, and upcoming SxSW conferences for feedback.
The reactions have been positive but certainly eye-opening as well. "Meetspace" is a great way to start the conversation around the MyBlogLog API (which came out of beta today) and our attempt to try and understand a world where your online social networks manifest themselves in the physical world.
I would refrain from the brain implant as the hack is only a few days old still crashes from time to time!
Ian
Ha! This is nothing, wait until FireEagle gets released into everyone's hot little hands.
http://fireeagle.research.yahoo.com
Join me for a FireEagle demon[stration] at SXSW...Muahahahahah! ;)
Privacy does cover the issue anymore. It comes down to information control. I've been looking forward to using my mobile to discover the people around me in real life for some time now. I don't mind if a service that helps me do that has my information. At the same time, I don't want my ISP to have it, and I don't want the government to have it. I like the idea of an online ID that I can use to verify my name, age, etc, but I don't want it tied to my driver's license.
Part of me is very excited about the future, but part of me fears I'll have to dismantle all that I helped install.
Hi Marshall
Nice post. I would not have a problem with this service, as it is opt-in, but I understand your point.
When I read this post yesterday I thought about Emotiv's technology and the power of combining this tool with their "human-machine dialogue". As other projects, Emotiv is looking for new ways for humans to communicate with machines... through your mind! "Think about an action, such as throwing a ball, and an avatar in a game will do it."
Imagine you can not only know who of the people around you have similar interests, but you can also instantly and easily modify your preferences using your mind or just a word (you go for a coffee and opt-out as you want to be by yourself; you go for a drink and you opt-in, of course with a lot of granularity in the preferences).
Kind of scary and super interesting at the same time:). I think we still have to learn a lot about the consequences of sharing our tastes and behavior with everyone 24/7, but that will require time.
Gabi
I for one think it's awesome, the problem is such a small percentage of people will actually sign up that it's unlikely to be useful for a while.
As long as you're not in witness protection I think the risk / reward of giving up that degree of privacy is acceptable... so long as you can opt out in the future if you change your mind.